Black Death

Causes

Source H
Many people have been killed, especially those stuffed full of evil
humours. As Galen says in his book on fevers, the body does not
become sick unless it already contains evil humours. The pestilential
air does no harm to cleansed bodies from which evil humours have
been purged.

John of Burgundy, who wrote one of the first books about the Black
Death in 1365.
Source K
...whatever the people said, the truth is that there were two causes, one
general, one particular. The general cause was the close position of the
three great planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. This had taken place in 1345
on 24 March in the 14th degree of Aquarius. Such a coming together of
planets is always a sign of wonderful, terrible or violent thing to come...

Guy de Chauliac, one of the most famous doctors in the 1300s.

Source J
Terrible is God towards the sons of men...He often allows plagues,
miserable famines, conflicts, wars and other forms of suffering to arise,
and uses them to terrify and torment men and so drive out their sins. And
thus, indeed, the realm of England, because of the growing pride and
corruption of its subjects, and their numberless sins...is to be oppressed
by the pestilences...

A letter from the Prior of the abbey of Christchurch Canterbury, to the

Bishop of London, 28th September 1348

Source P
This epidemic...kills almost instantly, as soon as the airy spirit leaving the
eyes of the sick man has struck the eye of a healthy bystander looking at
him, for then the poisonous nature passes from one eye to the other

Written in 1349 by a French doctor.

Source M
1349, To the Lord Mayor of London. Order to cause the human
dung and other filth lying in the streets to be removed. The city is
so foul with the filth from out of the houses that the air is infected
and the city poisoned.

A letter written in c1349

Source N
Sometimes [the pestilence] comes from...a privy [toilet] next to a
chamber or any other particular thing which corrupts the air in
substance and quality...sometimes it comes of dead carrion or the
corruption of standing water in ditches...
From an account by a 15th Century Swedish bishop.

Source O
It is a matter of scientific fact that earthquakes are caused by the
exhalation of fumes enclosed in the bowels of the earth...I say that
it is the vapour and corrupted air which has been vented...in the
earthquake on St Pauls day 1347...which has infected the air
above the earth and killed people in various parts of the earth...

Written
Source
U by an unknown author, written c1350-80
In the filthy conditions of the Middle Ages rats lived side by side with
humans. The bacterium that causes the plague infects rats and their fleas.
The fleas transmit the infection to other rats when they feed on them. The
rats quickly die. The fleas abandon them and move to humans to feed on
their blood. Once bitten, humans have little protection. Cells near the bite
die, creating black blisters. Four to six days after the bite buboes, the size
of apples appear. The most usual site for the swellings is in the groin. The
victim now has high fever, terrible headache and is delirious. Within 10 days
of the bite, 60% of those infected will have died. Sometimes those infected
could transmit the disease by coughing on to anyone close by. Pneumonic
plague can also be caught from flea faeces from bedding or clothing. The
victim coughs blood and dies within 2 days.
An account of the plague from a 20th century book

Symptoms

Source F
In the year 1348, in Florence, there occurred a most terrible plague; either
because of the influence of the planets or sent from God as a just punishment for
our sins. In spite of all means that human foresight could suggest, such as
keeping the city clear from filth, and excluding all suspected people, it wreaked
incredible havoc Swellings appeared on the groin or under the armpits some as
big as a small apple, others like an egg. These swellings then spread all over the
body. Later on, the symptoms of the disease changed and many people found
purple blotches on most parts of the body. These were sure signs, just as the
swellings had been, that the victims would die. Few escaped. They usually died
the third day after the appearance of the symptoms, the majority without any fever
or other complications. The disease grew by being communicated from the sick to
the well. Nor was it necessary to talk of even come near the sick. Even touching
their clothes or anything they had touched was enough. Neither the knowledge of
medicine nor the power of drugs had any effect. This was either because the
disease was fatal or because the doctors, whose number was increased by
quacks and woman pretenders, could discover neither the cause nor cure
An account of the plague by Boccaccio in 1353

Treatments/cures

Source E
Flagellants whipping themselves because they believed that the plague
was sent by God as a punishment for human sin.

15th century wood graving.

Source D
The disease must be in the blood. The veins leading to the heart should
be cut open. This will allow the disease to leave the body. An ointment
made of clay and violets should be applied to the place where the cuts
have been made.

Written by an unknown author, written c1347-55

88

Source B
Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell
up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting.

Written by an unknown author, written c1347-55

Source z
Ordinary people are waving mans laws to the wind and doing as they please.
They Reactions/
care not for
Gods displeasure, but choose to instead enjoy earthly vices
attitudes
with the knowledge, that they are going to die soon, as so many have, by the
pestilence ravaging our lands

An account by an English merchant c1349

Source G
A German woodcut showing the burning of the Jews in
Germany. The Jews were blamed for the Black Death by
some people.

Source S

Some say it was brought about by the corruption of the air; others
that the Jews planned to wipe out all the Christians with poison and had
poisoned wells and springs everywhere. And many Jews confessed as
much under torture...men say that bags full of poison were found in
many well and springs...

A German friar writing in 1348-49

Source B
Take a live frog and put its belly on the plague sore. The frog will swell
up and burst. Keep doing this with further frogs until they stop bursting.

Written by an unknown author, written c1347-55